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Tough Times or Wanton Poaching Along the Blue Ridge Parkway?

The sour economy has created tough times across the country. Whether that was behind an apparent poaching incident along the Blue Ridge Parkway is hard to say.

According to the parkway officials, Ranger Marc Cyr saw a man about to load a freshly-killed deer into his vehicle along a state road on the park’s boundary on November 28th.

"Cyr talked with the man, who admitted that the deer had been standing on park land when he shot it. He then took Cyr to the location of the ground blind that he’d been sitting in when he shot the deer, and also provided the location where the deer had been standing and where he’d gutted the deer – all within the park," the report noted. "He was charged with unauthorized taking of wildlife, possession of unlawfully taken wildlife, and possession of a weapon. His rifle and the deer were confiscated."

I'm not sure what you are asking. Do you mean that hunting should be allowed on _all_ federal land?

There clearly isn't a blanket prohibition of hunting on federal lands: almost all BLM & Forest service lands allow & support hunting, including Pisgah and Nantahala NFs adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some military lands exclude hunting, some allow only military & family hunters, some have hunting seasons open to the general public. Even in NPS units, the rules are that hunting is not allowed in most but not all: "Preserve" in the title is a pretty good indicator that hunting is allowed, and I believe that some other units have hunting explicitly allowed in their enabling legislation. The enjoyment unimpaired for future generations for most NPS units includes both wildlife viewing and sustaining wildlife populations in the regional landscape that can be hunted outside the park.